Thursday, November 20, 2003

House-Senate Negotiators Reach Agreement on Medicare Prescription Drug Legislation
Advocacy alert at the NAMI web site - " As is being widely reported in the press, House and Senate leaders have reached an agreement on legislation to add a new prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program. Details on the legislation are beginning to emerge; however, the full text is not yet available. The new benefits for prescription drug coverage and protections for vulnerable, low-income beneficiaries (including those dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid) appear to be a major improvement over the status quo and previous congressional proposals. As a result, NAMI has sent a letter to House and Senate leaders urging members to vote in favor of passage later this week...."  
  

Newer Drugs May Help Elderly Schizophrenics
Health Day News story at Yahoo - "A new class of antipsychotic drugs may offer improved relief for elderly people with schizophrenia, says an international study in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Most elderly people with schizophrenia are treated with conventional antipsychotic drugs. This study concludes they would have better treatment results if they were switched to a new class of atypical antipsychotic medications now widely used to treat people in other age groups."  
  

U.S. House Clears Bill to Require Children's Drug Testing
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "The U.S. House Wednesday approved legislation to write into law rules requiring drugmakers to test their products on children and provide labeling instructions on pediatric use. The Senate had passed the 'Pediatric Research Equity Act' in July, and the bill now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Primary Care Physicians Should Be Aware of Link Between Physical and Mental Health
Medscape Medical News story - "The connection between mental and physical health can have significant repercussions on patients' general health and in the workplace, with potential barriers to care when minority race or ethnicities are involved, according to a symposium held by the National Mental Health Association in New York City. ... Depression is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease and stroke, and it can affect treatment of diabetes mellitus and increase the risk of many other infections. In addition, mental health problems can exacerbate or produce physical problems." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Watchdog group raises alarm over inmate's death (Oregon)
Story in The Oregonian - " On his 70th day in solitary confinement, Billy Owens erupted into a psychotic fit and died at the hands of prison officers. An Oregon State Police investigation determined his death by asphyxiation was an accident. But a report by a federally funded watchdog group says Owens, who suffered from severe schizophrenia, was the victim of a prison system that failed to adequately care for and monitor him. ..."  
  

Health dept. budget to be slashed (New Hampshire)
Portsmouth Herald story - "A legislative committee on Wednesday approved $20 million in proposed budget cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services over objections from some lawmakers who said they didn’t know enough about the cuts. ... [The cuts] include a $4,000 cap on some mental health services provided to ...'low-utilizers' of those services. That cap will save $1 million a year for two years, and eliminate $1 million a year in matching federal money."  
  

China: Finding Peace of Mind
MSNBC story - "...China’s demand for psychiatric services is soaring. Huilongguan Hospital, China’s largest psychiatric facility, reports that its outpatient count has doubled in the past two years. The Chinese Society of Psychiatry has set up a mental-health Web site that gets 20,000 hits daily. And suicide—the leading cause of death for Chinese between the ages of 15 and 34—has reached an alarming pace, double the U.S. rate per capita."  
  

Revamping Mental Health Care (Nebraska)
WOWT story - " A new report cites the lack of adequate housing as the most common problem facing those with serious mental illness in Nebraska. The report was released Wednesday as Governor Mike Johanns announced plans to close two of Nebraska's three regional mental health centers. The report said that nearly 72,000 Nebraskans, age 19 years and older, will have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness by 2008. Of those, 88 percent will live outside of an institutional setting. "  
  

Mental Health Agency Cited on Research
Newsday story - "The National Institute of Mental Health is reducing the portion of its $1.3 billion budget that goes for research on serious mental illness while supporting studies on such subjects as fish communication and the mental processes of pigeons, advocacy groups say. A report Wednesday by the Treatment Advocacy Center and Public Citizen said that the institute was spending 5.8 percent of its research budget on "clinically relevant" serious mental health issues." See also the full report, "A Federal Failure in Psychiatric Research: Continuing NIMH Negligence in Funding Sufficient Research on Serious Mental Illnesses" at the Treatment Advocacy Center web site. The report is also available in Adobe Acrobat format.